Tag: Chinese music

Carsick Cars – 3 CD – 19th April 2014

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Cat #: 158TZM

NOTE: CD has alternate language versions to the vinyl and different bonus tracks in the download!

After five restless years, Carsick Cars, China’s most influential and dynamic indie-rock band, return with their most mature and exciting release to date.

Available in April 2014, ‘3’ is the aptly titled third album for the Beijing based trio. ‘3’ sees vocalist, guitarist and founding member Zhang Shouwang return with his signature sound, seamlessly combining drone with shimmering pop melodies. The result is assured to please established fans and new listeners alike.

‘3’ began with an auspicious start as preview single ‘She Will Wait’ shot to the top position on China’s leading music sharing website, Douban. For this reason among others, ahead of it’s launch in Australia, ‘3’ is already being hailed as one of the most important Chinese records of the decade. Zining Cui of Creative Asia, China’s premier platform for contemporary arts, stated that “China needs a big enough sound to shout out for attention – and Carsick Cars remind us of such a sound.”

Retaining the lineup of the all too brief 2012 Australian East Coast tour, Shouwang, bassist He Fan and drummer Sun Heting travelled to New York to record ‘3’ with producers Peter Kember (Spacemen 3, Sonic Boom) and Hamish Kilgour (The Clean), leaders in indie/psychedelic rock circles. Australian fans of Sino-American sounds and aesthetics will appreciate the cover art by renowned Beijing/Californian contemporary artist Guo Hongwei.

The record, the first full length to be released by the current members, is a logical progression for long standing fans of Carsick Cars. ‘3’, however, starkly contrasts in maturity and complexity from the band’s straight ahead noise-pop self titled debut in 2005. There are a few tracks reminiscent of well known singles from their prior two albums (most notably ‘Reaching The Light’), but most disparate is how ‘3’ showcases the extraordinary technical skill of Shouwang as a guitarist and the potential born from the unity of these three musicians.

While Carsick Cars wind up their lengthy United States tour with psych-drone five-piece Flavour Crystals, ‘3’ will be released in Australia on CD and LP on April 14th through Australasian DIY music specialist tenzenmen. Each format features variations on recording, bonus tracks and lyrics which promises to satisfy Australian fans until Australian tour dates are confirmed. Pre-orders with immediate downloads are available from today at tenzenmen.com .

Also look out for the Flavour Crystals/Carsick Cars split 7” featuring exclusive track ‘Yoko’ available on tenzenmen this month.

“It is pretty clear that this album, probably the most sophisticated the band has yet put out, will also be the most accessible and loved of their work to date” – Zining Cui – Creative Asia

“[This song] has the ability to become an instant indie rock hit. Play it loud and you’ll be singing along by the time the chorus hits.” – Dan Jarvis – Midwest Action!

“3 was well worth the wait. Singer/Guitarist Zhang Shouwang has managed to retain the same energy the band had in their early days, and with the help of bassist He Fan & drummer Sun Heting, they’ve put that energy into what is easily their best album to date.” – Dan Jarvis – Midwest Action! 

Recorded in New York, March 2013.
Producers: Peter Kember (Sonic Boom) & Hamish Kilgour
Cover art by: Guo Hongwei, cover designed by Zhan Pan

Alpine Decline – Go Big Shadow City – 31st January 2014

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Cat #: 156TZM

After 4 full albums in two years, Alpine Decline retreated back underground throughout 2013 to write and record their fifth full-length “Go Big Shadow City”, again with friend and co-conspirator Yang Haisong. Cataloguing experiences both lived and fictional ”Go Big Shadow City” is the sound of Beijing itself, as heard from the outside. Cigarette vapours caked onto countless km’s of 2” tape, street-level, ear-burning progress filtered through carcinogenic dust.

P.K.14 – 1984 – 3rd December 2013

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Cat #: 151TZM

“1984” is P.K.14’s follow-up to “City Weather Sailing” and comes after a five-year hiatus. The name of the album was inspired by “1984”, the dystopian political fable and the final novel by English writer George Orwell (1903-1950). Most of Orwell’s works have a vitality that has only grown stronger over time. Likewise, P.K.14’s music also has an astonishing, enduring vitality that prompts the listener to think and come to his or her senses.

The band’s fifth studio album, “1984” was recorded in October 2012 at Electrical Audio in Chicago with the help of legendary American producer Steve Albini, whose previous collaborations include Nirvana, The Pixies, Cheap Trick and P.J. Harvey. All tracks were mixed in Sweden by producer Henrik Oja, who also worked on P.K.14’s first three albums.

In a departure from their usual recording process, for this album, the band first went to Sweden to rehearse for a week with Oja, who worked a lot on the guitar and organ. Together they put the final touches to the beautifully crafted sound that has now become P.K.14’s trademark.

As with Orwell’s novel, “1984” is a spotlight in the dark, with songwriter Yang Haisong’s haunting and subtly satirical lyrics speaking of harsh reality.

“You and me walked a long, long road / You and me once left the world behind us / You and me once heard their jeering laughs / They welcomed us to the world of being controlled” (You and Me)

“I’ve already forgotten everything that’s happened / I live in a world without truth / I’ve already forgotten everything that’s happened / That which is miraculous couldn’t be more miraculous / That which is dead couldn’t be more dead” (Crazed Woman)

Yang Haisong’s powerful and poetic texts – and subtexts – hold a mirror up to the world and warn of a life lived in “1984”, where just having a thought can be a very dangerous thing. If that day arrives, at least we know “the Public Kingdom For Teen” will be in our corner, singing a war cry. 

Alpine Decline – Night of the Long Knives – 10th October 2013

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Cat #: 155TZM

One year after spiriting off to China, Alpine Decline return with their fourth album, “Night of the Long Knives”. Descending from the high altitude visions of their previous records, the duo walks us gassed out and head numb through chaos and time sickness, deep into the ruins of ancient alleyways and naked skyscrapers. This time under the expansive sonics of producer (and China punk godfather) Yang Haisong, “Night of the Long Knives” is Alpine Decline surfacing from the Beijing haze maze at the height of their powers, crafting songs with the ghost-memory quality of myths and guiding us deep into the cinematic and stereoscopic landscape of their world, real and apocryphal.

Somehow sounding both clearer and denser than their previous albums, “Night of the Long Knives” opens with “Day 213”, a broken transmission from the site of the band’s crash landing. Stepping away from the rubble, we again walk with the duo through a landscape that is equal parts fascination and horror (although never cynical, never sneering). This fourth album presents some of the bands most accessible, nearly pop moments, masterfully folded into experimentation and sonic exploration. From the deep hooks of “Drunk on Crystal Fire” to the zombie lurch of “Industrial/Domestic”, “Night of the Long Knives” is an album that proves, once again, Alpine Decline are making some of the most creative, exciting albums anywhere on the planet.

Alpine Decline – Visualizations – 9th October 2013

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Cat #: 149TZM

In the Spring of 2010, their self-titled debut still cooling on the racks, Alpine Decline left the sun-stained Sierra Nevada to trek through China from the Eastern capital to the Himalaya peaks in Tibet. Returning to the studio – this time working with L.A. experimental artist M. Geddes Gengras (Robedoor, Pocahaunted, The Congos) – the duo poured all the captured spirits of their journey into “Visualizations”, a ten-track-trip that revels in their expanded visions.

Though clearly a rock album, the songs on “Visualizations” seem to emerge from a more fleshed out landscape, with the guitars and drums rising up from a mist of drones that are sometimes ghostly and sometimes the full-throated OM of the otherworld. The songwriting and melodic craftsmanship, with vocals ripped up and glued together on magnetic tape, is more fleshed out than their debut, their identity more firmly realized, from the heart-pounding “Enter the Bullet” and “CCTV” to the mournful dreams of “The Fever Subsides” and “Deeper into the Part”. “Visualizations” lets you travel with Alpine Decline through provinces of electronic waste and shadow-warped night markets, dropping you off at the final notes short of breath but exhilarated.